Most commonly, electric appliances such as air conditioners are first assembled in an assembly line and then brought to an independent test station, where they are tested to see whether they have required quality. The test line is not incorporated in the assembly line because such tests must be done while the air conditioner under test is operating in a steady state condition in order to obtain reliable test data, and because the assembly line cannot stand by until the air conditioner reaches the steady state on the assembly line.
These tests are preferably carried out sequentially in a given time without interruption after the air conditioner has been put in operation, since otherwise some of the control parameters of the tests might change during the tests, which makes the tests unreliable. In actuality, however, the assembly line is often stopped and slow down on account of periodic recesses, for example, and occasional troubles.
Therefore, it has been difficult to incorporate a test line in an assembly line, from the point of production efficiency of the assembly line for air conditioners.
In view of these problems, the present invention is directed to a new test system that may be incorporated in an assembly line, for carrying out necessary quality tests of electric appliances.